Role play. Answer what the bullet point asks. Train students to look carefully at the prompt and highlight the key words. Then ensure that their answer includes those key features. Read, Highlight, think, then write.

Key message - role needs to be short and accurate. Don't add additional information here.

Make students can ask questions. Give them multiple opportunities to form questions using key question words. Build this into lessons on regularly occasions to develop automaticity.

Slow down during the read aloud. This will give you time to think and will support the examiner to identify the different sound spelling combinations.

At higher in the read aloud, a major pronunciation mistake caps the mark at 3. Make sure students understand the link between speaking too quickly and making careless mistakes.

Spend time revisiting and practicing the common mistakes in the language. Fr Je vs J'ai. SFC. SFE. Acute accent + er. le / la / les.

Unprepared conversation. Answer the actual question before you extend the answer. Direct answer + opinion / reason + development. Don't start a memorised answer and hope it addresses the question.

Photo description - get the basics right. In FR personnes, filles, gar_cons, trois, quatre and the SFE / Silent ENT on the verb.

Conversation AO1 - How much different information has been communicated. Repeating or recycling the same information doesn't increase the amount communicated.

A good higher strategy is answer + reason + detail + example + your experience. However, the basics need to be right before using more complex structures.

Train to students to listen to the whole sentence. Not just a key word.

Higher - ensure that your answer conveys the whole idea - not just a partial understanding. "Translate as much of the information given as you can, but don't invent details that aren't there!"

Test vocab understanding through listening and writing, rather than just reading and writing. Particularly important for French when the words often don't sound like they are spelt.

Practise hearing a tense, not just reading and writing a tense. Listen - which tense is this - why?

Remember that the dictation task requires students to write in the TL, rather than translating it into English. Ensure students are familiar with the layout of the papers.

Photo task - 5 simple sentences with an accurate verb. Write numbers as figures to avoid spelling mistakes. Draw attention to the fact that il y a un deux ..... is wrong!

Remind students they don't have to translate the bullet point in their answer. They just have to answer it. Model how to think more laterally about what they can say. E.g Your favourite subject doesn't require the word subject or favourite in the answer.

On Foundation Q2. Five simple sentences with five different verbs. To increase the AO3 mark, encourage students to use a 3rd person verb.

On the 90 word question, each bullet point must be addressed. Students who write something related to the overall topic, but don't address the specifics don't get the marks.

Verbs are crucial. Spend time in lessons ensuring students can use high frequency verbs correctly and they have at least 5 verbs which are specific to different themes.

Make sure the response to each bullet point in anchored in the tense it is testing. Multiple examples of the tense with different verbs.

Variety doesn't mean complexity. Different opinions, a range of adjectives, intensifiers, connectives, third person, infinitive constructions. Avoid using the same structures over and over again.

Stick to the word limit.

Translation - don't miss out the little words. Tick off each little word as you translate the sentence. Or as part of your checking mechanism.

Higher writing - avoid stock introductions. They are wasted words and can lead to mistakes. Get straight to the point!

Read the question. Find the evidence in the passage. Then check the rest of the sentence before jumping to any conclusions.

Practise A or B, A and B style questions by adding a 'why' or 'prove it' element into the task.

Regularly share the mark schemes with students so they can see how much information is needed. The answer nearly always needs to communicate the complete idea, not just the gist.

Higher - ensure students are familiar with the simple future as well as the near future!

Make sure students look for and can translate the star words.

Each of the words from the defined content list need to be taught and revisited enough times for recognition to be automatic.